Mutant1: Awakening Nathan
by Mapu
Summary: Series Crossover: seaQuest and XMenmovie. Lucas develops a mutation and the seaQuest crew react badly. Nathan Bridger's point of view. Note: It is NOT necessary to know anything about XMen.


# Mutant  
Awakening: Nathan

#### by Mapu

_I don't own the seaQuest crew or the X-Men. I just play with them. This is the first of my Mutant series and is a crossover between seaQuest season 1 and X-men (the movie). Each story in the series is told from more than one point of view. Thankyou, Donna, for the edit of this story._

Nathan Bridger, current captain of the UEO flagship seaQuest, wandered down the hall of his boat for what he knew would be the final time. He was on his way to the bridge but in no great hurry to get there. In a few hours, when the boat docked at New Cape Quest he would be there, as was required of him, but until then he planned to spend some time saying goodbye to the boat. 

He was immensely relieved the tour was over and he was free to retire. The decision had been an easy one, and although Noyce had tried unenthusiastically to convince Nathan to stay, both had known the decision was final. The seaQuest was an amazing vessel and Nathan was very proud of her, but it just wasn't enough to hold him. His heart just wasn't in it anymore. He couldn't wait to be released from the responsibility of command and get back to his island. The long, sunny days spent in a place where there were no people, and the petty fears that drove them, appealed strongly to him. 

He found himself outside a certain door, as he had so many times over the last several months. Sighing audibly, he opened the hatch and entered the room. Nothing had been touched since its occupant had left it almost six months earlier; even the bed remained unmade. 

Nathan sat on the narrow bunk and stared at the unruly mess surrounding him. He smiled lightly as his mind wandered back to the days when this room had been filled with incomprehensible loud music and an energetic, young man with the world at his feet. Inevitably, he began to recall the events of the day that had brought that bright future to an untimely end, and the smile slipped from his face. He closed his eyes and let the memory come as it had countless times before. 

Ortiz's lead whisker spotted the danger first then moments later the boat was under attack. The attack was well planed and executed, the seaQuest was badly damaged before it had managed to get its first shot away. As the attack continued, Nathan occasionally spared a glance at the closed clam doors to the bridge. The doors were meant to stay closed during an attack but he had left a standing order that Lucas was to go either to the bridge or to medbay in the event of an attack. The boy invariably chose to come to the bridge. 

Nathan had begun to feel some concern for the kid's safety when the doors cracked open to admit the obviously very frightened teenager. Nathan nodded to Lucas and indicated that he should join Ortiz at the sensor station. Lucas quickly mounted the steps to the upper deck and took his place behind the sensor Chief. 

They had tried everything, but the enemy had every base covered, and attack after attack found its mark against the seaQuest's hull. Finally the seaQuest was beaten and Nathan said a silent prayer that the enemy would begin to negotiate for surrender. The sound of a new incoming attack put that hope to an end. 

Nathan looked around at his bridge crew in sorrow, they were good people and they deserved better than a pointless death. His gaze at last locked on Lucas' huge blue eyes; the terror shone from the kid's eyes and Nathan felt a stab of pain through his heart at the knowledge that the boy was about to die. He'd loved having Lucas with him on the seaQuest, but at that moment, he wished the kid had never set foot on the boat ... that he was somewhere safe on dry land. 

Nathan issued his last orders and sat down in his command chair to wait for the end. "I'm so sorry, Kiddo," Nathan thought as he watched the boy glance around the bridge at the rest of the senior staff for what would almost certainly be the last time. 

He watched the boy grip the console in front of him tightly, and then the strangest thing happened. Lucas' skin and hair began to shimmer with a faint white light, his eyes turning luminescent silver. Small eddies of energy wound around the suddenly pale body and the teenager cried out in pain. 

"Lucas!" Nathan shouted in shocked fear as he rushed toward the boy. Before he could reach the kid, Nathan heard the impact of the torpedoes against the ships hull. He wouldn't realize until much later that there had been no detonation. He could think only of helping the boy he had grown to love. Nathan reached Lucas and wrapped the boy in his arms... or at least he tried to. The moment he came into contact with the kid Nathan's mind was seized by a cold fire simultaneously burning and freezing him, as an intense energy flooded through him. The pain was almost unbearable and Nathan heard himself crying out. He felt his body being lifted from the floor and thrown across the bridge, after that there was only darkness for a long time. 

He woke to Kristen's welcome face several days later, a blinding headache present to remind him of the previous events. "Where's Lucas?" he asked as soon as he was fully conscious. An intensely saddened look crossed Kristen's face at the mention of the boy's name. 

"Nathan, I'm sorry. He's gone," Kristen told him gently. 

"Gone ... gone where?" Nathan asked, afraid for the boy's life. 

"After you were hurt, Lucas ran. Ford sent security after him. He stole a launch and left the seaQuest," Kristen told him. 

"What? ... Has a search party been launched?" Nathan asked relieved Lucas was alive but confused by his actions. 

"Yes, they are looking for him, but it's been three days and they haven't found any sign of him." 

"Three days ... God, anything could have happened to him. We have to find him before he gets hurt," Nathan insisted struggling into a sitting position. 

"Nathan, he's already been hurt. While he was stealing the launch, one of the security people shot him. He's alive ... at least I'm fairly sure that he is," Kristen told him distraught. 

"I don't understand ... why would someone shoot him? Why would he run away?" Nathan asked, in shock from the news his mind simply refused to accept. 

"Fear. He ran because he is scared and he was shot because almost everyone is scared of him. Lucas is a mutant, Nathan. Commander Ford ordered me to do a DNA test on the blood left behind ... it confirmed it," Kristen broke the news sadly. Kristen carefully recounted all the details of the few days he had missed. 

Nathan tried his best to assimilate everything he'd just been told. Of course, he'd heard about the mutant phenomena ... everyone had. Every now and then a teenager would show a mutation, the numbers were small, but the frequency of occurrences had been increasing in recent years. There had been stories of seemingly normal teenagers exhibiting amazing abilities, some of them frighteningly powerful abilities - like Lucas. 

There were other accounts ... darker, terrifying stories of mutants with abilities so powerful they were totally unable to control them. Nathan also knew that most of the powerful mutants never made it out of their teenage years, a mistake using their powers or acts of paranoid violence by non-mutants had ended the lives of dozens. That Lucas had already faced that level of fear and hostility on board the seaQuest saddened Nathan to the core. Lucas had been lucky to survive that attack, but how long would it be before he faced a danger he couldn't survive. 

Nathan rested his head back against the medbay pillow and thought of the events as they had happened. A mutation would certainly explain the strange energy that had enveloped the boy on the bridge. Nathan had never seen anything like it and there was no doubt that Lucas had been responsible for the torpedoes bouncing harmlessly off the hull, as system after system on the ruin boat had repaired themselves and come back online. 

It was a certainty that Lucas had saved the ship and the lives of everyone on board. How had the fine crew of the UEO flagship reacted? They had hunted down the boy and shot him. 

"Who shot him... I want to see him, now," Nathan said dangerously. 

Kristen sat tiredly on the stool next to his bed. "Seaman Garcia shot him. He didn't mean it ... he just panicked. He's on a suicide watch," Kristen said indicating the unconscious young man on a neighboring bed, his wrists tied to the bed frame with fleece lined straps. "He tried to kill himself minutes after the shooting," Kristen explained. 

Nathan felt the rage drain out of him as he looked at the young man. He was only a few years older than Lucas. "Damn, Kids shooting kids," Nathan muttered, brokenly. 

He thought of the injured boy he loved, running from everything and everyone ... labeled a mutant, a monster, and tears he couldn't shed filled his eyes. 

On seeing the tears, Kristen rubbed his arm and tried to comfort him. "Don't worry, Nathan, they'll find him and he'll be all right. He's a survivor." 

Nathan shook his head in denial; Lucas was smart ... if he didn't wish to be found, no one would find him. "No, Kristen ... he's a boy, hurt, alone and afraid in a world that hates him, he is not going to be all right," Nathan had told her, the sure knowledge he would never see Lucas again tearing open his heart. 

He'd been right that day ... of Lucas there had never been any sign. They had found the launch with Lucas' blood smeared over the console and soaked deeply into the upholstery of the pilot's chair. An opened medical kit on the floor of the cabin, its contents rummaged through and used. Food rations, a survival pack and a blanket missing from the launch supplies. The most disturbing thing had been the stunner left on the cabin floor, Lucas' bloody fingerprints on it. That Lucas had considered taking the weapon at all was a testament to how frightened the boy had been. Nathan knew Lucas hated weapons but he'd often wished the boy had taken that stunner ... at least armed the kid would have had a better chance. 

Nathan stood up in the small cabin, and ran his hand fondly over the powerful little computer's keypad. His inner eye could see the tousled head bent in concentration as slender fingers flew across the keypad with amazing speed. It showed how quickly Lucas had left, that the boy hadn't taken it with him. From the reports Nathan had pieced together and the remorseful statement of crewman Garcia, it seemed that Lucas had said goodbye to Darwin, and had left the boat with nothing other than the clothes he had been wearing. 

In the months that had passed, Nathan and the senior crew had spent a great deal of time researching what had happened and what they had found had chilled them. Through a process of elimination, they had discovered that Lucas had the ability to manipulate the natural electrostatic forces... the primary force that bound one atom to the next. If true, then Lucas had developed an exceptionally powerful mutation. Theoretically, he was capable of breaking an object down into its individual component atoms then rebuilding it again exactly as it had been ... or better than before. Assuming he could survive using it at all. 

Nathan gazed around the room one last time before leaving, stopping only to pluck a photo of Lucas, Darwin and himself from the aquatube glass. Its next occupant would need the room cleared before the boat began a new tour. Nathan had left orders with commander Ford that if Lucas' parents didn't claim his gear, it was to be forwarded to him on his island. He didn't expect the Wolenczak's would want Lucas' things, they had both publicly cut any connection to the boy as soon as the mutation had become known, but Nathan wanted to be sure they had every opportunity. Lucas had loved them. 

Nathan stared at the bright, smiling face in the photo he held; the picture captured a moment of pure joy in what had been a short, tragic life. It was more than likely the kid had already met with a lonely death, and Nathan would never know what had happened. Gently he closed the hatch, not wanting to disturb the ghost of memories that lay beyond the door. Silently, he said a final goodbye to the boy who, like his own son, was lost to him forever. 

***   
AUGUST 2000


End file.
